The Eagle and the Fox

010. THE EAGLE AND THE FOX. An eagle that had young ones, looking out for something to feed them with, happened to spy a fox's cub, that lay basking itself abroad in the sun; she made a stoop and trussed it immediately; but before she carried it quite off, the old fox, coming home, implored her with tears in her eyes, to spare her cub, and the distress of a poor fond mother, who should think no affliction so great as that of losing her child.The eagle, whose nest was up in a very high tree, thought herself secure enough from all projects of revenge, and so bore away the cub to her young ones, without showing any regard to the supplications of the fox. But that subtle creature, highly incensed at this outrageous barbarity, ran to an altar where some country people had been sacrificing a kid in the open fields, and catching up a firebrand in her mouth, made towards the tree where the eagle's nest was, with a resolution of revenge.She had scarce ascended the first branches, when the eagle, terrified at the approaching ruin of herself and family, begged of the fox to desist, and with much submission, returned her the cub again safe and sound. [more info]